216
The Persians.
Atossa.
What! hath my son then hankered this town to make his prey?
Chorus.
Ay, to our king all Hellas would then submissive prove.
Atossa.
Of men then in their army have they so vast array?
Chorus.
Of such sort was their army, it wrought the Medes great bale.
Atossa.
And what besides? Wealth have they sufficient in their homes?
Chorus.
A fount is theirs of silver; a treasure of their soil.[1] 240
- ↑ It is first in an emphatic passage of the poet Æschylus that we hear of the silver mines of Laurium, in Attica, and the valuable produce which they rendered to the state. We are told by Herodotus that there was in the Athenian treasury, at the time when Themistoklês made his proposition to enlarge the naval force, a great sum arising from the Laurian mines, out of which a distribution was on the point of being made among the citizens—ten drachms to each man. Themistoklês availed himself of this precious opportunity, and prevailed upon the people to forego the promised distribution for the purpose of obtaining an efficient navy,—Grote's History of Greece. When we remember that this navy was the salvation not only of Athens herself but of Greece also, we are not surprised that the poet should make such emphatic mention of "this fount of silver, this treasure of the soil."
